Sometimes, homeschooling can be frustrating, especially when you have well-meaning people grilling you about it. And, you know, I’m tired of it. I don’t tell others how to raise their kids. Lily is actually better educated than a lot of kids her age. Not just kids, but even adults. Last night, one of her friends was visiting. (This same friend who told Lily that homeschooled children weren’t educated. I wonder where she heard that from!) Somehow, the conversation came around to mermaids. Her friend doesn’t believe in them. Her father has told her that they don’t exist. My child? She does, and she says it’s possible. Why? Because only 50% of the oceans have been explored, she told her friend. (Less than 10% of the ocean has been explored and less than 5% of its floor has been mapped. Link here.) So, I mention the Mariana Trench, which sets Lily off about it being the deepest part of the ocean. She leaves the table to find her encyclopedia on seas and oceans. (She knows the exact book that has the information.)
HAHAHAHA
Mind you, Lily isn’t quite 8 yet. When she heard that James Cameron dove to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, she thought that was really cool. How many kids at 8 even know about the Mariana Trench? Heck! Forget kids! How many adults know what it is?
When I first started homeschooling her in October, many veteran homeschoolers (as well as books) advised me to take some time off of schooling and to just enjoy her. So, that’s what we’ve done. Unfortunately, I’ve been honest about this, and people just don’t get that life is full of opportunities to teach. They think a child has to sit down and the parent stand up and lecture them. It doesn’t have to be like that. You don’t have to “school” to teach. Lily, Charlie, and I have conversations about things, we read books, we play games, and, yes, we do a bit of schooling. All of it is geared toward engaging her natural curiosity about the world.
What about tests? She’ll have to take a standardized test to get into college, won’t she? Maybe. It’s still 10-11 years down the road. Who’s to say what the world will be like by then. With things like the Kahn University and iTunes U, college might be all online. (Which I must say would be sad as going to college is as important of an experience as the actual learning there.) Besides, homeschoolers, for the most part, do better than those who go to school, even private school.
What about sitting for long hours and not being able to use the bathroom? Yeah, that I don’t agree with. What parent in their right mind thinks this is okay?
What about being socialized? HAHAHAHAHAHA She’s plenty socialized. We do all sorts of stuff with other kids. Nice kids. She just doesn’t have to deal with the bullies as much, and considering how awful it’s gotten and how the schools won’t do anything or allow you or the kids do anything about it, well, that’s no loss. Besides, that can happen say at swim lessons or anywhere, but, hopefully, not as much as it would at school. And, hopefully, by the time she comes in contact with a bully, she’ll be old enough and mature enough to know how handle it.
Only recently have I started doing some schooling. We’ve been working on her mastering addition and really understanding what that means and just how easy it is. When she was in school, she thought math was hard. Now, just the other day, she said to me, “Mommy, math is easy.”
And that’s what I want to hear. That’s what I want her to believe. Because math is easy. And, certainly, at this stage of the game, math should be easy.
Did you know that there are places in the US where the public schools don’t allow kids to do math without a calculator? I have to say that’s going to really help them when they get older and leave home. O.o
I came home hot, though, about being questioned. And, then, when I was lying in bed next to my daughter, waiting for her to go to sleep, I realized that what she knows, for the most part, is because of me and my husband, although mostly me because I am home with her. For instance, she knows what anglerfish, gulper eels, lanternfish, vampire squid, giant squid, manta rays, manatees, remoras, and a variety other sea animals are. She knows that dolphins and whales are mammals and their tails go up and down while fishes’ tails go side to side. That’s how they swim. She can identify a shark’s fin from a dolphin’s fin from an orca’s fin. She knows the many tasks of Heracles, who Medusa is and that with one look she can turn you to stone, that she doesn’t like the story of Athena and Arachne because Athena turns Arachne into a spider. She knows Cerebus, the three-headed dog who guards the Underworld. We’ve read the travels of Odysseus, children’s version, so she knows what the Cyclops is as well as the Charydis. We read Korean, Japanese, Chinese, American folk tales. And did I mention she loves dinosaurs? Even when her friend told her that dinosaurs are for boys, she didn’t care. She likes them, reads about them, wants to know more. We watch documentaries. So, she knows that toads, frogs, salamanders, and newts are amphibians, among other things. That she knows what an amphibian is is great. She even pronounces it right. 
So, as I thought about all of this, I realized that I’ve been homeschooling her the entire time, even when she was in school. And my child is interested in everything. She’s bright, smart, and has a great vocabulary. Her spelling needs work (she’s not quite 8 after all), she’s still learning to read, write, and cypher, but damn! she’s smart!
I want her genuine interest in everything to continue, but it would be nice if people gave me the same courtesy I give them and stop questioning my decisions. She’s healthy, happy, and educated. She’s a beautiful, bright-eyed child with a zest for life and learning. She’s not obsessed with fashion, growing up, or being the prettiest. (She’d rather be the smartest. LOL) I intend to keep her that way as long as I can.
I just picked up the fruit from the farmer’s market. It’s juicy and delicious and sweet. The ice cream was a special treat too. Sadly, it’s all gone to my MIL’s now. That beautiful, big pot of chicken and lima bean soup I slaved to make Tuesday is now sitting in my MIL’s fridge where I can’t touch it unless I drive there (much to my husband’s and daughter’s delight.) Everything will stay in my MIL’s fridge until we figure out whether we need a new one or this one can be fixed. I would prefer to fix it. There are other things I could spend our money on than a new fridge.
) What possessed you to volunteer as the chair?
